Team Black wins the playoffs!

It was a tough game, but we managed to hold on to win by 5 points. I scored no points at all, but got a few blocks and rebounds. So that's it, we are the champions!

Team Black 2013-2014

Our club held its first race school at St-Eustache on Saturday and Sunday. We had a particularly well-disciplined group and the weekend went off without a hitch. All the advanced-level students (400)  were granted race licenses. Here are a few photos (these are my fist automotive action photos with the SLR camera, so bear with me until I learn what I am doing!).

300-level group lineup

Some spectators

A couple of future classics in the 100-200 group

On-track action

More on-track action

This BMW stayed put

I might have got stuck in the mud at some point...

BMW action

Great colour for this car!

This car showed up and took a few laps during a break in the school. Fast and loud... and fast!

First race school this weekend, Civic is not ready...

I can't believe the first race school is taking place this weekend. Sadly, I will not have my Civic at the track, as it is far from ready. The early spring has gone by so fast. Alex and I have both been busy with work, but I managed to take Good Friday off so that I could change the sunroof mechanism on the BMW. I was estimating it would take somewhere between 3 and 10 hours. It took 5, pretty much all day. You have to remove a lot of interior parts to take out the headliner! I'm so glad the sunroof works again though, especially as the weather is warming up.

2 BMW sunroof mechanisms

On Friday night, my basketball team lost game 2 of the best-of-three finals, after we had won game 1. The deciding game will take place tomorrow evening.

Jules continues to be very entertaining. He is now able to string a couple of words together and make mini-sentences. He is also able to maneuver through various apps on Alex's Android tablet.

Shadow of Jules at breakfast

We went out for a nice walk on Easter Monday that took us to the Lachine Canal and Old Montreal. Here is a picture of Jules in the running stroller.

J. on the Lachine Canal

Jules and his grandmother at Easter brunch

Jules received chocolate goodies from various family members, but, as we don't let him eat chocolate yet, I am the one who had to sacrifice myself and dispose of all that chocolate.

As far as car-spotting goes, spring is definitely here. I have seen a bunch of Ferrari's and other exotics in the past few days. I can't wait to get the Civic back with its new engine!

Cool cars spotted:

Ferrari 360
Ferrari F430
Ferrari 458
Ferrari 599
Ferrari F12
Mclaren MP4
Nissan GT-R
Porsche 991 Turbo
Lexus IS-F
New BMW M5
BMW M6 V10
BMW M5 V10
Maserati Ghibli
Maserati GT
Saab Tubo X
Jaguar XKR-S
Rolls-Royce Phantom
Bentley Mulsanne
Jaguar F-Type S
Audi R8 GT
Aston Martin Virage
Aston Martin V8 Vantage
Audi RS5
Audi RS4
Audi Ur-S6 Avant
Mercedes CL600
New AMG S63
AMG E63 wagon

M5 is subtle, for a car with 560 hp

California and Phantom

Rare wingless STi

  

6.0 liter V12!

I think spring is here!

Yesterday, the temperature in Montreal reached 15 degrees. Also, I saw a Lotus Elise being driven with the roof off. Final clue that spring was here: I saw a Lamborghini.

Sadly, my own summer car is nowhere near being ready to drive. I will surely not be ready for the first race school in two weeks. Oh well...

The BMW is running flawlessly, although some jerk vandalized the car in a shopping center parking lot, removing the side marker lights, the BMW badges and the little M-badges in the side gills. Luckily, I was able to order replacement "Made in China" parts on Ebay for under 100$. Still, very annoying!

I also repaired the broken passenger-side mirror by replacing a broken metal mounting plate (had it shipped from a friendly guy in Singapore) and it was really like a puzzle to assemble all the parts of the power-heated-mirrors in the proper order. I was more than a little surprised when I saw that it worked properly...

My basketball team won both games of the semi-finals and we will be playing in the finals starting tonight. I think we have the right team to go all the way, but our opponents are very tough, with serious outside shooting.

I have seen a couple of new cars on the road. The new Subaru STi looks better in real life than in pictures and is a decent-looking car. The Maserati Ghibli is very nice, and has much better proportions than the current Quattroporte.

Other than that, family life is good. Jules is at a really fun age where he can understand and use language and he is generally in a very good mood, although I can see somewhat what the terrible twos might soon be like.

Here is a photo of J. with the official "Flock of Seagulls" hair style:

And here is a photo of J. "doing stuff" to my laptop. Maybe he will be our go-to guy for setting up our electronic devices before too long?

Cool cars spotted:
New AMG E63
AMG G55
AMG S63
AMG CLS63
AMG C63 Coupe
BMW M5 E39
BMW M6 V10
Citroen XM
Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
Lotus Elise
Maserati Ghibli
Maserati GT
New Subaru STi
1st generation Subary Legacy Turbo
Porsche 996 Turbo
Porsche 997 Turbo S
Classic Mini
Fisker Karma
Audi Ur-S4
Audi RS4
Audi R8

How about some more snow?

This was my walk to work this morning!

Oh, and I saw this near the office yesterday... cool car for winter!

Cool cars spotted:
E92 BMW M3 (orange)
Audi R8
Porsche 997 Carrera 4 GTS

It still feels like mid-winter

I don't want it to seem like I only use this blog to complain about the weather, but it was -12 degrees when I walked to work this morning. There is still snow everywhere. It really looks like mid-winter out there. I wish I had the time and budget for a vacation somewhere hot! I can't believe we will be in April next week.

There has been no progress on the race car, other than that I have brought Pat almost all the parts he could need to get started. We have yet to pick up the engine I bought, as I am waiting until the last minute so that we can see it run during its short warranty period. I can't even imagine when the car might be ready to drive... it seems so far in the future. At least the BMW is reliable and always available.

My basketball team won its first playoff game, the first in a best-of-three semi-final. Game 2 is tomorrow. I think my team is solid and we could go all the way. We'll see in the coming weeks!

Cool cars spotted:
BMW 1M
BMW 633
Alpina B7 (must be the same one)
AMG C63 Coupe
AMG E63
Nissan GTR
Audi S7

March 17th and it was -19 degrees this morning.

When will winter end? We got 15 cm of snow last week, followed again by freezing weather for several days (Saturday excepted).

The Formula 1 season started yesterday, and Jules and I watched the first race together. Jules had his own single-seater. He likes to grab the horse's nose to make it stop...

Our summer travel plans are coming along, as we have booked our hotels, our flights, our Goodwood tickets and our rental car. I can't wait until summer!

Cool cars spotted:

BMW 750

Brabus S-Class

BMW M6 V10

Alpina B7

Audi RS4

Audi RS5

AMG G55

AMG E63

Winter is dragging on...

The temperature is still dipping down close to -20 almost every night. I can't believe that we'll be holding a race school at the track in only a few weeks.

I finally received all the parts I had ordered for the Civic and delivered them to Pat yesterday. The car looks so sad, sitting on Pat's trailer with its 14-inch winter wheels. I really look forward to driving the car, even on the street, just so I can see what the new engine is like. Also, it's nice to drive a car that is completely different from the BMW.

I actually washed the BMW the other day, but it only stayed clean for about 15 minutes...

When Jules saw the above photo, he not only said "car" (which he says whenever he sees a picture or video of a car, and even sometimes when he mistakes something for a car), but he actually said "our car". I was impressed!

I've been playing with my new camera, but have not really managed to take any nice pictures indoors, while it has been too cold for me to try some outdoor shots. Hopefully I will have something to post for my next post!

Cool cars spotted:
AMG CLS63
New AMG S63
AMG G55
Rolls-Royce Ghost
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII
Porsche Cayman S

I find the Cayman to be really exotic-looking... it really stands out.

These old Accords are pretty rare these days